Eco madness

“But I don’t want to go among mad people,” Alice remarked.

“Oh, you can’t help that,” said the Cat. “We’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.”

“How do you know I’m mad?” said Alice.

“You must be,” said the Cat, “or you wouldn’t have come here.”

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

Waiting to fix a deadly problem and hoping the Fairy Godmother will sprinkle fairy dust is a sign of madness. Unlike cosmetic surgery, when you have a hole in your head there is no reason to wait.

The cost of action (climate mitigation costs) would create jobs and improve the economy, while the cost of inaction is measured in trillions of dollars and lives. Consider the recent Midwest floods. Given the massive volume of water flowing on the ground, the most recent estimate for damages is $3 billion and 20 lives. However, the costs of soil erosion and contamination threaten agriculture for years to come – restoring soil is a long process.

Last week, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report found 2018 had the fourth-highest annual growth in the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide in the last 60 years.

Extreme weather events are changing the ecology. The alpine tundra in Colorado’s Front Range emits more CO₂ than it captures, a process similar to the Arctic tundra melting permafrost releasing carbon buried for centuries. As frozen tundra soil thaws and becomes exposed for the first time in years, its nutrients become available food for microbes. Unlike plants, microscopic organisms can grow all year long. These vicious cycles are climate system feedback loops speeding the existential threat for life.

           The total cost and environmental damages increase as we wait to act on climate. Human activity increases greenhouse gases. The wounds are festering and spreading.

Emission-free energy

Coal is dead, the cost of electricity from coal-fired power plants is now higher than solar and wind power. New utility-scale power storage solutions debunk the need for 24-hour power plants.

States pushing back

Great news last week from Wyoming. A U.S. District Judge in Washington, D.C., last week, blocked oil and gas drilling on 500 square miles in Wyoming and says the government must consider the cumulative climate change impact of leasing broad swaths of U.S. public lands for oil and gas exploration.

California, New Jersey, and other states are taking legal action to restore EPA’s previous regulations.

Green New Deal

U.S. Senators are expected to vote this week on the Green New Deal, a proposal to tackle climate change. Trump is raising the socialist flag suggesting the GND threatens our democracy. The real threat is Trump’s way of government, a one-party dictatorship, seemingly preparing the nation for armed conflict and economic problems. No one knows what Trump will do, but the trade wars with China, the European Union, NAFTA 2.0, and the refusal to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership, have left the U.S. out of global trade. Additionally, Trump’s budget request for FY 2020 increases military and homeland security spending and cuts public services, using off-budget overseas warfighting accounts to bypass statutory spending caps.

Environmental madness

Andrew Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist, is the new head of the Environmental Protection Agency. Wheeler is the worst person to guide this most critical agency, he was hand-picked to roll back more regulations.

The EPA website has a disturbing disclaimer: “This is not the current EPA website. To navigate to the current EPA website, please go to www.epa.gov. This website is historical material reflecting the EPA website as it existed on January 19, 2017. This website is no longer updated and links to external websites and some internal pages may not work.”

We are far down the road…

How can we ignore the abuse and climate disruption from fossil fuels, deforestation, animal factories, industrial agriculture, and all other sources of greenhouse gas emissions?

Is abusive behavior acceptable on a hot planet, overpopulated with millions of people suffering from lack of shelter, food, water, and hope? Are honesty, kindness, love, and compassion no longer American values?

Is it all about power?

Dr. Luis Contreras